commissary

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commissary

  • /ˈkɒm.ɪ.s(ə)ɹi/ UK
  • /ˈkɑ.mɪˌsɛɹ.i/ US
  • /ˈkɑ.məˌsɛɹ.i/ US
  • /ˈkɔm.ə.sə.ɹi/ Australia

Where it comes from

From Late Latin commissarius, from commissus, past participle of committō (“to commit, entrust to”). Doublet of commissar.

noun commissaries

  1. A store primarily serving persons in an institution, most often soldiers or prisoners. The base [Fort Meade] has its own post offices, schools, police, and fire departments. Area children, military brats and civilians alike, would flock to the base daily to take golf, tennis, and swimming lessons. Though we lived off base, my mother still used its commissary as our grocery store, to s
  2. An account which a prisoner uses to buy provisions, or the balance of that account. “We tried to provide for you while you were in there. We may not have put as much on your commissary as your in-laws, but what we gave was more to us.”
  3. A cafeteria at a television or movie studio.
  4. One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner. Great Deſtiny the Commiſſary of God;
  5. An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop. It has been already hinted , that a Commissary, in Latin stiled Commisarius, is a Title of Ecclefiaftical Jurisdiction
  6. An officer who supplies provisions to an army.
  7. The judge in a commissary court.
  8. A higher-ranking police officer.

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MLA

"commissary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/commissary. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

commissary. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/commissary

Chicago

"commissary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/commissary.

BibTeX
@misc{commissary_2026,
  title = {commissary},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/commissary},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}